This application pertains to a system for the management and routing of optical fiber cables and other cables. More particularly, this application pertains to a coupling for joining trough members such as troughs and fittings.
In the telecommunications industry, the use of optical fibers for signal transmissions is accelerating. With the increased utilization of optical fiber systems, optical fiber cable management requires industry attention.
One area of optical fiber management that is necessary is the routing of optical fibers from one piece of equipment to another. For example, in a telecommunications facility, optical fiber cables may be routed between fiber distribution equipment and optical line terminating equipment. In buildings and other structures which carry such equipment, the cable routing can take place in concealed ceiling areas or in any other manner to route cables from one location to another.
When routing optical fibers, it is desirable that a routing system will be readily modifiable and adaptable to changes in equipment needs. Accordingly, such routing systems include a plurality of trough members such as troughs and couplings for modifying a cable routing path. The trough system members are joined together by couplings. U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,678 to Henneberger et al date Nov. 26, 1991 teaches a cable routing system that discloses a plurality of troughs and fittings. The ""678 patent further discloses a coupling (element 250 in FIG. 1 of the ""678 patent) for joining trough members and fittings. With best reference to FIGS. 6-7 of the ""678 patent, a plurality of hardware is disclosed for joining the trough members. The hardware can be cumbersome. The present invention is directed towards an improved method for joining trough members and fittings.
A preferred coupling is easily installed. Furthermore, where the cable routing system is used in combination with large arrays of equally spaced equipment units, it is important for ease of installation that the couplings used do not misalign the routing system components with their respective equipment units. This typically happens where a large number of routing trough members are coupled together in a long line. If the space introduced by each coupling between trough members is not minimized, the couplings will introduce a shift in the location of the trough members relative to the equipment units with which they are to operate. Therefore, smaller couplings which introduce less space between trough members are preferred.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,781 to Haataja et al discloses an additional example of a coupling for troughs and fittings. The ""781 patent shows a coupling which receives opposed ends of two troughs or fittings. Fasteners attach the coupling to the troughs or fittings. In some applications the size of the coupling in the ""781 patent is too long when combined with other desired troughs and fittings. One such situation may occur where the user is attempting to maintain a predetermined spacing of components in a routing system over bays spaced every 600 millimeters or 800 millimeters. Further improvements are desired for cable routing systems.
The invention relates to a quick-connect coupling, system and method for a cable routing system including trough members to be joined at flanged ends. The coupling includes a U-shaped rib and a pivoting clamp. The U-shaped rib has a rail along an external side of the rib. The rib also includes retention arrangement, such as a retention bracket, extending from the external side of the rib. The pivoting clamp has two ends. The first end is pivotally coupled to the rib. The second end includes retaining means, such as retention arms, which may be releasably retained by the retention means of the U-shaped rib when the pivoting clamp is pivoted to a closed position. The clamp has a clamping surface contoured to hold two flanged ends of adjacent trough members or other fittings against the rail and the external side of the rib when the pivoting clamp is in the closed position.